FLOOD: Five feared drowned in Bayelsa

Five persons were feared drowned yesterday on Epie Creek, near Yenagoa, Bayelsa State after two canoes collided in the raging flood in the state.

The victims were mainly artisans.

One body had been retrieved at press time.

Eye witnesses said one of the canoes was paddled by a woman.

A survivor who refused to disclose his name said he was in one of the canoes with his friends when the accident occurred.

According to him, when the two boats collided, the occupants of his boat, which included his three friends drowned, while he held on the canoe until sympathisers came to his rescue.

“As my friends drowned I held to the canoe. People saw me and came to rescue me,” he said adding, “My friends don’t know how to swim, even me.”

Three of the victims were identified as Abiola, a panel beater; Obisco, a mechanic; and Isiaka a driver.

Isiaka’s body was retrieved shortly after the incident while divers brought in by government were searching for the others.

Meanwhile, Governor Seriake Dickson has warned those in charge of relief materials for flood victims not to make it a business affair.

Governor Dickson who got to the scene of the accident while on a tour of camps for those displaced by flood ordered immediate supply of life jackets to boat transporters around the area, and warned against overloading of canoes.

He warned transporters to ensure that passengers use life jackets before they are conveyed across the Creek.

Members of the community have decried the non-completion of a bridge being constructed by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The bridge has been under construction for over two years now.

“If this bridge which has been under construction since 2010 had been was completed this wouldn’t have happened,” a member of the community told the governor.

At the Igbogene flood Victims Camp, the governor said: “Nobody should expect to make money out of this flood situation. This is an emergency period. The East/ West road is blocked, nothing comes into this state from Port Harcourt, nothing comes from Warri- Ughelli side. This state has been cut off for a long time,” he said.

“The whole state is a camp; the state is in an emergency situation. The whole of the state is a refugee camp, even in Yenagoa you have a camp that is almost ten, and I am addressing all of them. It is a major problem.”